| Glattløpet infanterigevær M1794 & M1808 (smooth bored infantry musket M1794 & M1808) |
| The Danes obviously were strange people that did strange things! In 1794 they introduced a new smooth bored flintlock infantry musket with total length of 142 cm. In 1807 they started producing another and less expensive version of the same musket, this time with the Kyhl’s lock (hammer on the inside of the lock plate). In 1808 they started converting a number of the original M1794 to a 15 cm shorter version for use by short grown soldiers. Why on earth convert the M1794 instead of producing a shorter version of the M1807??? Things like this make collecting being fun! The M1794 was the answer for the request for a lighter and faster to reload modern musket. The armourer of the Copenhagen Arsenal, C.W. Kyhl, designed this all-new musket with a load of new features compered to the older versions. The musket really was ingenious. It featured a number of dramatic improvements on earlier models: Faster loading was enabled by introducing a conical touch-hole enabling gunpowder from the barrel to “leak” on to the flash pan. A new bayonet attachment with a spring enabled faster mounting and dismounting of the bayonet. The pan had a vertical screen protecting the eyes of the man to the right of the shooter. Sliders instead of pins in order to fasten the barrel to the stock etc. There was produced a total of some 30 000 of the standard M1794’s. I have no records over how few were converted to M1808, but this musket seems to be extremely scarce (As far as I know, there are only two known in Norway – Drammen museums and mine). In addition there are a number of other conversions of the M1794 – like the M1794/1841/? practise musket for Trondhiems Katedralskole. I at first believed this was a civilian cut-down until I saw a number of identical ones at the Norwegian Military Forces museums magazine (Forsvarsmuseet). I’m rather in doubt that Forsvarsmuseet is correct in their presumption of this being used as a training musket at a school, I believe it was used in the navy or by the coastal guard. |
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